There is suppose to be a Systema guy here in Dayton. People talk about him like he is an old bearded Chinese Master in a hill top temple ... except he is supposedly an old Systema dude in a small college.

I may go check him out once I am back on my feet.

I would urge you to check it out- even if you don't like it, it's interesting to see such a novel approach. Also if he's done systema a long time and trains hard, he's likely to let you wail on his midsection with punches, so that should be fun.

codos, just wanted to tell you that yet another thing we seem to share is a love of longboarding.

i mostly quit because i was getting hurt from falling and it was interfering with my martial arts, but i still have my boards. my main ride is one of these with randall trucks:

"Face punches are an essential character building part of a martial art. You don't truly love your children unless you allow them to get punched in the face." - chi-conspiricy
"When I was a little boy, I had a sailor suit, but it didn't mean I was in the Navy." - Mtripp on the subject of a 5 year old karate black belt
"Without actual qualifications to be a Zen teacher, your instructor is just another roundeye raping Asian culture for a buck." - Errant108
"Seriously, who gives a **** what you or Errant think? You're Asian males, everyone just ignores you, unless you're in a krotty movie." - new2bjj

I love bombing hills too... but the stick/paddle? Dude... are you Matthew Mcconaughey? Drop the stick! ;) We see that stuff in Malibu too often.

On a side note, whenever I increase my BJJ training my surfing gets much better as well.

First of all, I try not to associate myself with the surfing paddleboarders, because theyíre notorious for taking up every single wave with their huge kayakesque boards. Also Iím the only one Iíve ever seen on a skateboard in San Diego. One of the main reasons I switched to the stick is that all the conventional skateboarding was kinda messing up my body because of its asymmetry. With the paddle, I can paddle on either side with either foot leading, something thatís hard to do otherwise. I can also pump to increase my speed on hills without ever having to take a foot off the board (being one footed on a big hill is asking for trouble). Also Iím way stronger now than I was before I started.

Originally Posted by Ming Loyalist

codos, just wanted to tell you that yet another thing we seem to share is a love of longboarding.

i mostly quit because i was getting hurt from falling and it was interfering with my martial arts, but i still have my boards. my main ride is one of these with randall trucks:

I ride a very similar board, but it's a Sector 9 with a slightly more tapered tail, with Independent reverse kingpin trucks, 70mm wheels and some Boes Swiss bearings (I just got these recently and I love em). Here's a panda holding it:

I have 5 or 6 broken decks lying around too. One of them was an art piece that I did:

got punked

Having once had the "pleasure" of fighting a Systema exponent...A bona-fide Russian no less I find it to be incredibly difficult to fight against.
It's like trying to fight a ragdoll, there is no resistance to these people! You hit them and there is complete relent on their part, you just up slipping off them.
Though to be honest some of the vids on youtube look just ridiculous.
My experience may of course be based upon the 'Good fighter' as opposed to 'good style'
All in all I ended up with a cracked lower rib and a dislocated pinky finger.

I think I'm resurrecting a thread here, but I feel a little obligated to do it.
There's a lot of Systema schools around that have no correlation to combat at all. I'm going from what my own instructor has told me, I've been training Systema for almost a year now.

From what everyone seems to say on here, it sounds about right, too. All I know is the Systema classes at Carlton, where I train, are made damn sure every weird movement drill done at the beginning of class end in a functional defense situation. I mean, there's been times when we've had straight up gloves and mouth guard sparring.